Nevada Backroaders

Hey All,

At some point I'd like to get an Off-Road Trailer to tag along behind my Jeep, but I do not want the purchase amount to cost more than the Jeep thats towing! All I see online are great looking trailers but they are just way too much. Do you know of anyone in town that will fabricate such a trailer and have it be be registerable (spelling?) at the DMV that won't cost an arm and a leg and maybe the other arm too?

Thanks!

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2001 Nissan Xterra
1995 "M" Powered Jeep YJ **SOLD**

I don't know of who would make one. It's too bad since there seems to be a market for a decent trailer and a decent price.

I have a small homemade cargo trailer that is right sized for a Jeep or other small 4x4. Except it'll have trailer brakes before towing with the Jeep again. Basic trailer about 8 or 9' tounge to end, around 5' wide and I have an option of 2" ball or pintle. Works great off road. Picked it up off ebay a few years ago for not too much.

I'd post some pics but I guess I need some other apps installed to do so.

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4x4s
94 YJ
06 Dodge Ram 2500
12 Tacoma

"Homemade" is a word I've been pondering. Whats the process to get it registered at the DMV if its "homemade," as in no title or vin#?

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2001 Nissan Xterra
1995 "M" Powered Jeep YJ **SOLD**

I dont know if it has changed any but if it is home made you take it down to the DMV safety inspection they check it out give you the paper work you need and then you go in side to registar your new trailer.

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ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

I'm making one out of a utility bed off a S-10 pickup. I got a wrecked S-10 for free and cut the frame off at the cab, and welded a tongue out of square stock with a hitch from the local trailer shop. It would have been done already but I'm adding a lot of doo dads to it. I want it to be a mobile camp site when done. My uncle did something like me. He got a mini-truck with a camper top for cheap, cut the frame into a tongue and used the bed and camper top for the trailer. He then built some inside storage out of lumber and he can use the pick up bed to sleep in when he's got the camp set up. He has TJ and it tows nice behind it. Just another avenue.

As for the DMV, I was told you need to keep some receipts to basically prove you built it and didn't steal it as well as a way to evaluate a value for it, and they inspect and create a vin and title for it.

As for having one made, you're still looking at a pretty high price. Steel cost is still high, plus figure welding/fab cost and an axle set up. Wheels, tires, lighting, sheet metal (decent guage aluminum sheeting is crazy high) for the sides, etc. You might get one in under half the cost, but I'd expect only if you built it 100% yourself. And that's if you have everything you need to do it with from the start like a welder, saw, grinder, etc.

I'm not sure which ones you have looked at, but these guys seem to be the cheapest: http://beartrailersports.com/trailgater.html Saw them at SEMA awhile back and the trailer looked pretty stout. I'm actually looking at getting one of their roll off car trailers which are priced well against other manufacturers.

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All Jeep trails had to first be Scouted.

1978 IH Scout II Lifted, locked, blah,blah,blah.
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Her car.
1992 Ford F350 XLT 4x4

There is a gun shop on the corner of Boulder Hwy. & Whitney and at times trailers,
that sorta look like a tear drop on its side, are parked in the lot for sale. Don't know
much more, but I am positive your jeep would be able to pull one.

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Yellow 08 Xterra 4X4

well, for my .02$, I bought a trailer at Harbor Freight. It's a 4'X8' trailer with 12" rims. You have to bolt it together yourself, but it comes with the title paperwork to take to the DMV. Once I got to the DMV, the inspector took about 30 seconds to look it over (because it was a known name brand trailer, even though it was Chinese), and OK'd it. It came with a vin number plate riveted to it already, so the total time at the DMV was extremely short. I have looked into doing a teardrop trailer myself (I can weld and do woodworking myself, and have the appropriate tools). Many do-it-yourself teardrop websites with and without plans suggest using that trailer as a starting frame to build onto. The best part was that the trailer was on sale (and is right now) for $300.00. It is a 1195 lb capacity trailer, so I also use it to tow two motorcycles when we go camping/riding. As far as offroading a trailer, most trailers do not have spring or shock suspension. Some have leaf springs, but many more recent trailers only have a square hard rubber torsion bar suspension. With a bit of welding, I suppose a leaf spring suspension could be added to a standard axle trailer, and I may have to experiment with that some time in the future. My fear is that a leaf spring trailer will end up with a severe bounce. And the TJ towing recommendations are based on the fact that with a short wheel base, a trailer can end up driving the rig. I suspect more so in an offroad situation.

I imagine, that a teardrop could be built on that frame for under $1000 total including the cost of the trailer, but until I built one for myself, I would never feel like I could be comfortable building one for someone else. (I am a perfectionist, and wouldn't want to have someone else's trailer fail.)

That's my input for what it's worth.

Travis

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'00 Smiley Yellow TJ................................(\__/)
2" Teraflex Susp lift, 31" BFG AT's...............(='.'=)
3.73's with Detroit Truetracs F/R................(")_(")
Mile Marker 8K, KC's, H4 conversion, etc, etc etc.

Not really applicable, but maybe there's something useful.

I have a former U-Haul single axle trailer with an open 6' box; likely something built in the 1950s. It was my father's, who bought it at an auction about 35 years ago and used it for his dump trailer until he couldn't drive any longer. I got it two years ago. I replaced the tires at a small local shop (he lived near 29 Palms, CA) with a set of used but nearly new multi-ply sidewall trailer tires for a very nice price and I repacked the wheel bearings. The wiring was useless, desert dried to nearly powder, but since my Toyota's lights could be seen at most angles, I took a chance driving it home to Winnemucca over a two day period.

Since it had a current California title, plate and readable VIN, I had no issues with DMV. Since I didn't have the trailer with me when I attempted to register it in Nevada, I was given a form for a law enforcement officer (in this case a Humboldt County Sheriff deputy) to inspect and sign off on it; then paid me fee and put on a new Nevada plate.

I gave some thought about making an off road trailer out of it and had all kinds of suggestions from friends and others. The trailer has a square tube drop axle, which is easily reversed to raise the trailer. I thought about going that route anyway as the truck's bumper trailer ball location is nearly a foot higher than the trailer's tongue and I was thinking of a cheap alternative to an expensive frame mount receiver hitch.

I put on some new lights and wiring, but the trailer is still a rusted yellow color. But it pulls like a dream - you hardly know it's back there, even fully loaded and at 75mph Interstate speeds. I've carried over a ton in it and the Tacoma easily handles it, even with the bumper hitch ball. I even put on a set of amber lights up high in the front corners so I can even see if it's still back there at night.

Still have yet to put a receiver hitch and drop ball on the Tacoma. Attempted early this year, bought a Reese brand unit through Amazon that claimed fit the Tacoma, but actually didn't. To Amazon's credit, though, they have a very easy return policy and it all went through very smoothly. I never did get another hitch, as the unit that fit the Tacoma was considerably more expensive.

So, though it looks sort of dorky with the trailer tilted visibly backward, it still pulls just fine and works great as a utility trailer for hauling big, bulky items or things to the dump or a run to Reno or Elko for furniture, etcetera.

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D.A. Wright
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.

Next year during the Ely run in July I can take you over by the ghost town of Eberhardt and show you what happens to a HF trailer when you take it off roading. Unless someone removed the remains that is. And we were on the road from Current, that gets graded semi-annually.

IMO they're decent for light duty, asphalt only use. The constant jarring of the trailer over gravel/rock terrain tears the steel apart. Ours (actually a friends) was even welded at the joints, but the leaf mount ripped from the frame breaking the frame in half, and twisting the axle 90 degrees to the trailer, ruining both tires and spring packs.

I'd like to say that was the worst part of the week long trip.......


I can say from experience that any trailer shouldn't have less than 13" tires. 15" are better as you can at worse case use car/truck tires for spares when you get a flat in the middle of no where. The size increase of the tire greatly increases the load capability and towable speed as well.

Even getting a Carson or similar brand trailer locally in a 4x8 or 5x8 size would make a good platform to build off of. I had a 5x8 with a 2000lb. weight rating that I used behind my Scout when I needed to tow something. IIRC it was $700 ready to go with no spare. Jeepin' Joe can attest I beat the tar out of it and it held up fine. Only thing I did was upgrade the tires to a Goodyear trailer tire as the ones that came with it were el cheapo which finally gave out on a gravel road near Eureka, NV.

_________________
All Jeep trails had to first be Scouted.

1978 IH Scout II Lifted, locked, blah,blah,blah.
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Her car.
1992 Ford F350 XLT 4x4

I was thinking the same thing about those small tires you see on many trailers. At any speed they are turning considerably faster than any size vehicle tire thus more prone to heat build-up and wear.

My trailer has 15" tires. 205/75R-15 trailer service tires. 3-ply side walls, 4-ply tread.

On double axle trailers, on tight turns, the inner tires on the front and outter on the rear axles really take a beating. I remember in my days of hauling loaded 52' semi trailers around the plants in Trona with the yard goats watching those tires nearly get pried off their rims in tight turns; thus I can see the need for heavy gauge sidewalls. So off road, multi-ply tires in standard vehicle sizes but made for specifically for trailers would be nearly indestructable from sidewall damage.

Going off road, I don't think an all terrain type tread makes any difference as the trailer is towed, thus traction is not an issue. As long as there are plenty of tread plies. And multi-ply sidewalls don't hurt either.

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D.A. Wright
~When You Live in Nevada, "just down the road" is anywhere in the line of sight within the curvature of the earth.

Saw this today:

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/rvs/1973729463.html

_________________
All Jeep trails had to first be Scouted.

1978 IH Scout II Lifted, locked, blah,blah,blah.
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Her car.
1992 Ford F350 XLT 4x4